How to manage one iTunes folder from multiple computers via a network?

Hi there,
The Setup: I have a macbook air, my partner has a macbook pro, we both have iPhones with our own iCloud accounts. There is an apple TV and an Airport Extreme with an external USB HDD in there too (which could potentially be plugged into the ATV via ethernet if need be).
What I want to be able to do:
     1 - NOT have to store the music on my MBA
     2 - Still be able to add music to/alter playlists and movies in the iTunes library that my MBA uses, from my MBA (ie if I end up with new music or movies on           the MBA I need a way to transfer it easily, -keeping in mind that not all the video will fit on the MBP HDD)
     3 - Use the one iTunes music folder for both the MBA and the MBP (to avoid having to update both)
     4 - Sync my iPhone with my iCloud email and contacts etc...
     5 - Sync my partners iCloud with her own email and contacts etc...
     6 - Sync music from the 'common' iTunes folder to either iPhone
     7 - Use apps from my iTunesstore account on my both iPhones
     8 - Stream video from the 'common' iTunes folder to the ATV in HD
Can someone please tell me how I make ALL of the above possible?
Things i'm not sure of are:
     A- Where do I put my iTunes music folder? -Locally on the MBP, or on the External HDD in the airport Extreme?
     B- Which of the above would iTunes match help with?
     C- Would homesharing be used?
     D- What usernames/accounts do I have to put into the iPhones adn where? (itunes or icloud etc...)
For some reason I just can't get my head around how this setup will work.
Thanks in advance!

I'm sort of in the same boat. We've got an iMac with separate User Accounts set up and are currently sharing the same iTunes and iPhoto libraries along with streaming them to our Apple TV.
Right now I'm the only one with an iPod, however she'll be getting one in a couple of weeks.
We also just picked up a MacBook yesterday and I'd like to be able to sync certain libraries like iTunes and iPhoto so that no content gets duplicated on either the iMac or MacBook and so that we both have access to the current libraries for each program on our iPods and AppleTV.
I have an external hard drive that I back up the iMac on and I assume I could manually keep things current with that but there's got to be an easier way...that's why these are Macs right?
Bill

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Can I share one iTunes Library with multiple computers on a network?

Can I share one iTunes Library with multiple computers on a network?
note: one library universally shared, not Home Sharing (one library each, shared to each.)
I want to share one library stores on my server and access it through various local computers. When I buy a song from a computer (non-server), I want it to be added to the library (stored on server). I want it to auto copy to my server, for organization. I want to be able to sync my phone from any computer.
Most of this I can do, if i figure out how to use one universal library for all my computers.
Any ideas how I can do this?

eyeinit,
You can authorize your iTunes account on up to 5 computers at a time.
However, purchased music is downloaded to the first machine to download it, but these articles have more information on moving your music between authorized computers:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93063
This one is for moving all your music using an iPod as a storage drive
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300173
Hope this helps,
Nathan C.

How to share one iTunes library with multiple computers AND Apple TV? Help?

It seems like my dilemma may not be easily solved. Hopefully it isn't as complicated as I think it will be. Here's the situation:
My wife hates that, in order to see or do anything with the images she takes, I need to have iPhoto open on my computer (Mac Pro), and she then has to connect to it over sharing.
By the same token, I don't like that she buys iTunes content on her MacBook, which is sometimes a duplicate of content I already have. Now that the App Store is out, that is going to start getting really expensive.
So instead, I want us to be able to:
1) Have ONE iTunes library on the network, and ONE iPhoto library. Both of these would be accessible to any computer on the network. When you launch iTunes, you would get all the media that is in that library.
2) Both be able to access iTunes at the same time to listen to / watch content.
3) Both be able to purchase iTunes content, and when it it purchased, it updates that single library. If I buy a song, the next time my wife fires up iTunes, that song is there for her to listen to.
4) Have our two Apple TV units be able to play content from this library.
So, I know that we need something on the network. I have a Drobo with DroboShare, so that is one option. I also have a spare Mac Pro laying around, along with a copy of OS X Leopard Server.
I just don't know what route we should take with this. All I want is for us to share a library, to be able to both use that library, for us to be able to sync content from that library to our portable devices, and for our Apple TVs to also see that library.
Possible?!

I'm sort of in the same boat. We've got an iMac with separate User Accounts set up and are currently sharing the same iTunes and iPhoto libraries along with streaming them to our Apple TV.
Right now I'm the only one with an iPod, however she'll be getting one in a couple of weeks.
We also just picked up a MacBook yesterday and I'd like to be able to sync certain libraries like iTunes and iPhoto so that no content gets duplicated on either the iMac or MacBook and so that we both have access to the current libraries for each program on our iPods and AppleTV.
I have an external hard drive that I back up the iMac on and I assume I could manually keep things current with that but there's got to be an easier way...that's why these are Macs right?
Bill

How to transfer videos onto iPad from multiple computers?

I have an iPad mini. Most of the time, I don't use it with a computer, but occasionally, I need to load videos onto it for editing. I have two comptuers I need to load videos from (work and home). Do I understand correctly that this is not possible? I can manage media from multiple computers via iTunes, but it appears that the only way to get videos into the camera roll is to actually sync with iTunes? And that's can only be done with one computer at a time? And that changing which computer I use wipes the iPad?
I've tried both Google Drive and Dropbox as well, and while the videos do show up and are playable, there doesn't appear to be any way to get the videos out of either app. The videos are in MP4 format.
Any advice?

One work around could be: say you sync with comptuer A, use dropbox to get the videos from B to A, then iTunes to get them from A to your iPad.

Manually managing music on iPhone from multiple computers

Everything I've read 'claims' this can be but I don't think the people who tell you how to do it even bother to see what happens. This is one of the things that really frustrate me about forums. It's the complete lack of thoroughness of the people who reply to a question without knowing the outcome.
It's a simple task. I want to be able to move music from multitple computers to my iPhone. When I go into iTunes and select the device, in my case it's the iPhone, and check the box to manually manage music and videos then click 'apply' I get a warning that everything is going to be erased from the phone. WTH!?! And no one on ANY forum who suggests this is the proper way manually managing music even has a solution to be able to do this WITHOUT erasing the phone.
C'mon Apple. It's a SIMPLE drag-n-drop implementation. How hard can it be? I'm not the least interested in syncing with some music library on the computer. In fact I don't even sync my phone with the iTunes Library. It's a waste of time because I can't even selectively sync music. It's either all or nothing. STUPID. I simply want to move music on and off the phone. You know, drag into the window to add and drag off to remove. And I want to be able to do it from any computer I want that's running iTunes. I shouldn't have to copy music from a different computer, carry it home and add it from the home system. That completely defeats the concept of portability. And if my home computer happens to go south for some reason then what? Even if I have all my music backed up, I have to wipe out all my music on the phone and start all over because I'm now using a different computer. Who was the genius that came up with that ludicrous idea?
Apple you really need to take a page from Sandisk and allow iPhones to be treated as external drives so we can drag and drop our music onto them. No muss no fuss. Simple and clean with no hair pulling. It's already established the you create some very pretty devices. Now let's work on improving usability. Because the way I see it, it's a bit backwards.

Sync iPod/iPad/iPhone with two computers
Although it isn't possible to sync an Apple device with two different libraries it is possible to sync with the same logical library from multiple computers. Each library has an internal ID and when iTunes connects to your iPod/iPad/iPhone it compares the local ID with the one the device normally syncs with. If they are the same you can go ahead and sync...
I have my library cloned to a small 1Tb USB drive which I can take between home & work. At either location I use SyncToy 2.1 to update the local copy with the external drive. Mac users should be able to find similar tools. I can open either of the local libraries or the one on the external drive and update the media content of my iPhone. The slight exception is Photos which normally connects to a specific folder on a specific machine, although that can easily be remapped to the current library if you create a "Photos" folder inside the iTunes Media folder so that syncing the iTunes folders keeps this up to date as well. I periodically sweep my library for new files & orphans with iTunes Folder Watch just in case I make changes at one location but then overwrite the library with a newer copy from the other. Again Mac users should be able to find similar tools.
As long as your media is organised within an iTunes Music or Tunes Media folder, in turn held inside the main iTunes folder that has your library files (whether or not you let iTunes keep the media folder organised) each library can access items at the same relative path from the library folder so the library can be at different drives/paths on different machines. This solution ensures I always have adequate backups of my library and I can update my devices whenever I can connect to the same build of iTunes.
When working with an iPhone earlier builds of iTunes would remove any file not physically present in the local library, even if there was an entry for it, making manual management practically redundant on the iPhone. This behaviour has been changed but it will still only permit manual management with a library that has the correct internal ID. If you don't want to sync your library between machines on a regular basis just copy the iTunes Library.itl file from the current "home" machine to any other you want to use, then clean out the library entires and import the local content you have on that box.
tt2

Can I access my itunes account from multiple computers?

Can I access my itunes account on multiple computers?

What do you mean access?
You can certainly sign into your account from any computer with itunes.
Your content will only be where you put it. You can put it/copy it wherever you like.
In some countries you can redownload some itunes purchased content:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store

How to create one clean image from multiple shots?

I tried searching, but I really don't know how to search for this so I came up empty.
I have multiple pictures of the same product but had to focus on different parts to get those parts in focus. As you can imagine, this meant other parts were out of focus.
I seem to remember during one of the "CS3 is cool" seminars I attended that something along the lines of what I'm hoping to do is possible.
I would like to merge these images together to form one image with everything in focus. Exposure is the same on each of them.
Is this possible (and if so, how) or am I dreaming?
Using PS Extended.

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. I'll give those a shot and see if they work enough. If it looks like it'll take too long right now, I'll just try to find a better angle where I can get it "good enough" as I have many more pictures I need to take of cables and wires.
Super fun.
To answer some of the questions posed to me:
I looked at photomerge, but that looked to me like more of a way to make panaramic (sp?) pictures from multiple shots. I may tinker with that a bit though as it's something I'd like to use for other things as well.
I don't need this very often so this would not be a common practice, but if I knew how to do it, that would open some more options for me and I'd likely do it more often but still not regularly.
It's not a super closeup, though I've had need of this operation on those in the past; wound up just shooting differently and settling for second or third best.
I don't use what anyone would call a photo studio. It's a 4x8' piece of styrene tacked to the wall and a fold-up 6' table in a room with flourescent lighting (please try to restrain your laughter). The company's camera, while decent, is very old: Sony DSC-D770. This is why I bought my own Sony DSC-F828 2-3 years ago. Not the best but much better (the tiny-to-sometimes-larger purple haze around most edges is what bugs me the most). And my setup is just my camera on a tripod. I'm not fooling myself about my skills at photography; I'm very small-time, but I still need my shots to look good.
(Out of respect for actual photgraphers, I don't even call myself a photographer. I "shoot product photos" or "do product photography" which still sounds a bit too lofty, but....)
The product itself is the Velleman TLM12, a test tweezer for SMD devices. I'd like to get a "long" shot of it but that angle makes the tip and leads get out of focus in most shots and they're tiny so it's really noticable. I can get every part in sharp focus in 3-4 shots, but not in one at the angle I'm hoping to get.
I use a macro lense when I need to get big pictures of 1" connectors and the sort, but this is way too big for that and the macro has a very small area of what would be in focus so this problem would be compounded far more than I'm experiencing now.
I think layer masks might be the quickest way to achieve what I'm trying for here. Like I said, I don't need this often but if I knew how, I'd do it more frequently and might even create an action to do this faster.
Thanks again, everybody. HUGE help. :)

Accessing iTunes music from multiple computers, platforms?

Please accept my apologies in advance if this is a dumb question, but I'm a newbie and I need help.
I have a PC that I have been using as a storage drive for a (33GB +) collection of iTunes (recently upgraded to iTunes 8.02.20). I play those tunes on a 1st generation 4GB Nano, as well as at home on the computer. That PC is one of several that runs on a peer-to-peer wired and and wireless network in my house, the wireless part through several different access points.
All of my music was loaded into iTunes from recordings I own, either on CD or digitized from vinyl. None was bought on the iTunes store or downloaded from the web, so I don't think there should be any DRM issues, but I don't know if there are any limitations imposed by iTunes as a default.
I have two questions:
1 - I recently got a MacBook Pro, and I'd like to be able to duplicate a portion of my music onto its hard drive (but nowhere near all, as it would clutter up the hard drive unacceptably).
2 - I'd also like to be able to get at the iTunes files from all of the machines on the network, without duplicating the files themselves, if that's possible (to be able to include them in creating slideshows, movies, etc.)
Is there any way to make this possible? Are there any DRM issues that attend doing something like this? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Here is the background article on that - if you look at the network share as the "publicly accessible music folder" while reading it.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1203
So basically you have the network share. All the users drag files from it into their itunes library, so the database ITL file knows where to go to play it.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
And make sure each user has the option for copying files turned OFF, or you'll get duplicate files on the share.
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA26579

How to share music/itunes folder between 2 imacs on a network?

I have a mac network.(my imac, 2 ipads and 2 iphones 4s. My wife just bought a Imac i5 that we added to our network. Now we want to move out Music/tunes folder from my home directory to an external drive so we can access from either mac. How do I set this up?
Thanks

Hi Paul,
http://fmforums.com/forum/topic/85381-applescript-to-copy-file-from-network-volu me/
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5134568/copy-a-file-in-applescript

HT1751 Is it possible to use single external iTunes Library from multiple computers (my mac book, pc, mac mini)

Hi,
I recently decided to maintain my itunes libraries distrubuted onto different computers. (such as mac mini, mac book, pc)
I am planning to consolidate one of my iTunes library, move it to external source and configure external hard drive to be used by my iTunes library permanently.
For this purpose, I bought 5big NAS pro network storage hardware. I completed all basic setup and now I need help on designing access methodology.
Question is : Does external iTunes library supports to be used by more than one iTunes application? if not what will be the closest solution to save storage and ease of library management?
Thanks in advance
Serhan

Hi,
I recently decided to maintain my itunes libraries distrubuted onto different computers. (such as mac mini, mac book, pc)
I am planning to consolidate one of my iTunes library, move it to external source and configure external hard drive to be used by my iTunes library permanently.
For this purpose, I bought 5big NAS pro network storage hardware. I completed all basic setup and now I need help on designing access methodology.
Question is : Does external iTunes library supports to be used by more than one iTunes application? if not what will be the closest solution to save storage and ease of library management?
Thanks in advance
Serhan

How to edit/publish a calendar from multiple computers?

In our small business we have up to three people doing scheduling using iCal. We would like to use our separate computers to edit/publish calendars. Right now, we can subscribe, but not publish calendars from multiple machines.
Is there a way to remotely log in to the Mac we publish the calendars on, or can we do this through the web?
Sorry if this has been covered before . . . thanks!

The only way I know to "log in" to another computer is through the Apple's sofware: Apple Remote Desktop (a bit overkill if all you want to do is edit a calendar)
It is not possible to edit another user's calendar, you can only sibscribe.
Perhaps a 3rd party will have this ability soon (Chronos is coming out with a major upgrade to their Group/Personal Organizer product.
DayLite by Market Circle is another product which may let you do what you want but it doesn't currently sync with iCal, thus you would lose all the extended functionality of iCal.
Sorry none of these meet your current needs,
Do look at CalTalk if you need to share calendars locally without publishing them to the web. (How do you share now?)
There are also some web based calendar programs (eg BaseCamp) but you have to always be connected to the web and pay a subscrition fee.

How do I put all of my iTunes music from multiple computers / devices onto one external hard drive?

I have two desktop macs, a macbook air, two iPads, and two iPhones. I have one Apple account that I use for all music - including music my college aged kids download. My problem is that I would like to get all the music into one library, delete the duplicates, then have the external drive store all the music. Is there a practical way to do this? This way I can set up my devices so that they all have the same music and playlists. Is this the best way to handle this situation?

The cheap and easy way is to just add all the media files as new items to a new library configured to store all on the external drive (start iTunes with the option key held down and tell it to create a new library on the external). There won't be any automated way to prevent duplicates. You're doing manual spring cleaning. Of course if you add all the items as new items you will lose things such as playlists, date added, last played, etc.
I got these off the web so cannot rate them for you:
PowerTunes - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/powertunes/ (commercial software)
syncOtunes - http://homepage.mac.com/oligrob/syncOtunes/syncOtunes.html

How to manage different iTunes Libraries from same computer

I have my own AppleID, iCloud account, iTunes Match account and my own Library.
But I have just one computer and one AppleTV.
How do I manage my granddaughters accounts, so they can listen to their own libraries on their iPod touch?
I don't want to mess up login to iTunes with another AppleID and then having to wait 60 or 90 days to log back int.

The best way is to create ther own accounts on your Mac. Method 1 in the following:
How to use multiple iPods, iPads, or iPhones with one computer

How to use a Itunes Library between multiple computers

Hi all,
I have never posted a question to this apple forum, so forgive me if this is the wrong place to ask.
My situation is as follows:
I have a Synology DS214play NAS, also attached to my network is a wired Imac (late 2013 model) running the latest software and wireless connected macbook pro.
What I want to achieve is to manage my music on both my Imac and my Macbook, the itunes library file(s) and music are stored on my NAS.
What Im able to do is to manually select the Library file on one devices and it retrieves all the contents and I can start listing and adding music.
However if I want to also listing to my music on another device at the same time, Where I also select the library file its giving me this message:
What this message is telling:
"The File 'iTunes Library Extras.itdb' is locked, this file is located is located on a secure disk or you don't have the privilege to write to this file.
Sorry for the bad translation.
I have tryed everything so far but it doesn't help,
I hope you guys and girls can help me with this.
Regards Jordy from the Netherlands

I want to also listing to my music on another device at the same time
A library file can only be opened by one running copy of iTunes at a time. You have to quit iTunes on the other computer.
You can have two library files sharing the same media, but then you have to keep two libraries up to date with each other.

Using One iTunes Library on multiple computers.

Hey guys,
I've currently got my iTunes library saved on a Time Capsule and use it with my mac mini.
I want to be able to use the same library on my macbook pro. have set up iTunes on both computers so that it looks for the library on the Time Capsule so at the moment both machines can play all the media.
However if i buy track using the mini and add it to iTunes it saves it in the right place and plays fine but how can i update the library on the macbook as so it can see the new songs that have been added?
Any help would be greatly appreciated
Kind regards

Another detail with this setup is that if you've got an iPod or iPhone that you want to load music to, you'll need to connect it to the computer that is the 'host' offering the music library for share. If you use the 'client' computer, then it won't let you install your mp3s to your iPod from the 'shared' library on the other computer.
In my setup, which is similar to what you're describing, it looks like iTunes lets me connect my iPhone to either computer and install mp3s.
Seth

How to manage one iTunes folder from multiple computers via a network?

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